Legends come Alive?
by Starlouse
Summary: Sesshoumaru meets a demon from the dancer halls when he meets with one of his underlings, Rin gets poisoned by a fatal poison, only one can help her, however, this demon has been believed dead for a thousand years. Sesshoumaru and Other Character.
1. Prolouge

Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me except all the other characters that I created.

Authors Note: This is not a Rin and Sesshoumaru story, so if you are hoping for that, you can leave. The characters are terribly out of character, so don't flame because of that. It's my first time writing, soplease be niceto me... My facts might not be very correct, because I do not really know much about Inuyasha's story, so don't blame me. The genre might not be accurate also, so don't blame me. Hope you enjoy and review!

There was a legend, that many years ago there was a legendary demon, the Cat demon, Lady of the undergrounds of the Western Lands.

She was half a sorceress and half a demon. Below the Lands of the Western Lord, she and her people lived.

There were rumours that a group of sorceress would stand around in a circle below the grounds, chanting magical spells to stop anybody from entering their terrains without permission from them.

The lady was known to dress in a purple colour dancers dress with a translucent black kimono on top. She had silvery coloured hair, her eye colour ranged from purple to silver to blue depending on her mood.

She was known to have intricate markings, a curved line with a dot under one of her eyes, and tear drop like markings on both her hands just below her wrist, as well as a star marking on her neck.

She was a well known dancer and the greatest healer of her time.

She had the powers of poison, able to create poison needles at any time, a healing power yet a deadly power. It was said that no one could poison her and, all that tried only gave her more samples of poison to use for her own needs as her body could remember the poison and produce it.

She had the art of speed, darkness, and had an army full demons and sorceress, which consisted of assassins and ninjas. Stealth were her army's greatest assets, and they worked best in the darkness.

She was named the Princess of the darkness, Poison Master, Mighty Sorceress of all.

There was and still lives another demon that has and still is feared and respected by all, Sesshoumaru, the dog demon, Lord of the Western Lands. He is a full blooded demon, and was recognised by all for his taste to dress all in white.

He had white silvery hair colour and amber eyes. On his face were two purple striped markings on each side and a crescent moon. He had stripes on his arms as well.

It was said that when he fought, it was so graceful that he seemed as though he was dancing.

He was known for his two famous swords, tokjin, and tenseiga and he had poison claws too, which only the best of the dog demons have.

Tokjin had the power to kill thousands of people or demons in one stroke, yet Tenseiga had the power to bring anything back to life again. Two weapons of such contrast and so contradictory, in the hands of one.

Sesshoumaru had an army full of demons that was feared over the lands. The moment the army gathered for a fight, the army against them was as good as lost. He was what people named the Glory of the Morning, Lord of the Light.

When he came as an ally to help, there was to be no darkness.

Both demons were known and feared over lands. They were great allies, the dark and the light combined together to fight. Although they had never met, they were always put together and admired by all not only for their formidable army but also for their great strengths.

Yet one day, an unexpected thing happened. In the midst of a great battle, between the Lady of the Western undergrounds and The Lord of the Northern Lands, a prophecy was made in front of the Lady by a prophet unknown by any, mysterious person who will never know the name.

No one but the Lord of the Western lands and the Lady of the Western undergrounds knew the contents of this prophecy, however, every one knew that not long after the prophecy was made, the whole Western undergrounds collapsed, and all the people died.

There were rumours that The Lady was seen raving and ranting outside the Western Lands after it collapsed, however, few believed it, for everyone believed The Lady to be dead.

The Northern Lord boosted by his lucky victory tried to attack the Western Lords Land that very day and died a terrible death. His whole army was defeated and those that did not surrender were banished to the remote islands around the Western Lands, never to come back again.

Just on that one day alone, the world lost two million nine hundred and fifty seven thousand, seven hundred and eighty seven people including a few casualties on the Western Lords side, as well as a lot of well-known talents of their time, all the sorceress, the great healers, who came from the undergrounds, the assassins, ninjas, that was the lost of the art of darkness for although there were many afterwards, none could ravel the healing powers of the great healers nor the art of darkness from the ninjas and assassins.

There were no pure-blooded or half-blooded sorceresses or sorcerers after that tragic day; all that was left was a diluted bloodline of the sorceresses and sorcerers. These people could not even perform the simplest of all magic that the sorceresses and sorcerers could do without thinking or using any effort.

The Lord of the Western Lands and his people however, surprised every one when they did not meet with the same tragedy as the Lady of the undergrounds. For although their Lands was directly above the underground that collapsed, the collapse happened too far down, and too far deep, and thus did not really affect them, but a few cracks in the ground, or a few trees toppling.

There were no casualties in the Western Lands due to this matter.

For a period of time after the great tragedy, there were mourning all over the lands for the lady and her formidable army were lost to the world forever.

However, although it was a great regret to all that The Lady and her army were gone, people started to forget about them, for the Lord of the Western Lands and his formidable army was still they, and they had nothing to fear, for the Lord of the Western Lands and his army was as strong the Lady and her army filled with ninjas and assassins in the open, so although there were less assassinations, the Lord of the Western Lands still managed to protect his people in his own glorious ways.

The Western Lands continued to thrive and years after years passed. The Lady of the Western undergrounds and her army were soon totally forgotten to all but the oldest of the demon, and only as memories in the oldest.

In peoples or demons minds, the underground lands and its lady was only a legend, a myth, even a folk tale. The underground lands did not exist to them at all.

Up till today, The Lord of the Western Land still exists and has managed expand its territory over all the other Lands well, making the Lord of the Western Lands the Overlord of all lands.

All was peaceful, and he still continued to rule the Western Lands. He however passed the other three lands, Southern Lands, Northern Lands, and Eastern Lands, to three other full-blooded royal demons to look after, unless met with grave state problems, or the Lord saw things that displeased him, the Lord did not interfere with the other three lands and the way the other three lords ruled it, or any of its law.

Over the years, the Lord of the Western Lands was well known for his detest for humans beings and hanyous, as he felt that they were weak and inferior creatures, not strong enough to be in the same status as demons.

He especially despised his hanyou half brother Inuyasha, who had became famous when he joined up with a priestess Kagome and a monk Miroku and a demon slayer Sango as well as a demon fox Shippo to find the Shikon Jewel and managed to kill Naraku, a great villain of his time.

Inuyasha had disappeared mysteriously after his great glorious battle five years ago when he and his group formed a temporary and very shaky ally with Sesshoumaru, and defeated Naraku, and the Shikon Jewel had been became whole. Inuyasha had vanished with the Shikon Jewel, and the young priestess Kagome, never again to be seen by anyone, human or demon.

After Shippo had gotten over his grief that Inuyasha and Kagome had abandoned him, he met a teacher that taught him the values of life and how to be a real demon without resorting to violence. After his training, he went around passing this message to every demon.

However, when he received news that his teacher had been attacked and died, he retreated into the forest and has rarely been seen by anyone outside the premise of the forest since then.

Sango and Miruku finally got married after Miruku proposed to Sango right after the battle, and Sango's brother Kohaku lives with them. The whole family have been going around killing demons when the demons try to take over human villages and had saved many villages.

They were well known for their sense of justice, and soon, after receiving suggestion from some villagers, they started a school to teach people to protect themselves from demons. It was very successful, and now they travel around everywhere, teaching people the right skills that could help them protect themselves and their families from demons.

Kagura and Kanna, the two minions of Naruku gained their freedom and their hearts back after Naruku died. Appalled by her behaviour when Naruku was alive, Kanna went to look for Shippo and begged him to take her as a disciple. After kneeling in front of his house for three days and three nights, Shippo finally relented and agreed to take Kanna as a disciple and teach her how to atone for her past mistakes. Kanna lives with Shippo and has since been trying to atone for her mistakes.

Kagura got her wish to be as free as the wind, she is some times seen flying in her feather. She has been flying since she gained her freedom, and some say that she would never stop until she died or got captured again.

Despite Sesshoumaru's abhorrent for humans, nine years ago, he adopted a normal human girl of no royal blood into his castle and gave her his protection. Rin was her name.

They met when Rin tried to give the Lord of the Western Lands some assistance after one of his great battles with his half brother over the sword Tetsusaiga, which was passed down by their father to Inuyasha.

The sworn tensusaiga had the ability to kill hundreds of demons in one stroke; however, it could not be used by any full-blooded demon, only someone with human blood running through their veins would use this sword without getting hurt.

After Rin tried to help Sesshoumaru, Rin got killed by some bandits when they attacked her village. Sesshoumaru, taking pity on the foolish human that tried to help him, revived her with his sword, tenseiga. Rin subsequently followed him, as she had no family to go back to and refused to go away.

After Sesshoumaru realised that he could not shake Rin off unless he killed her he decided to adopt her. She has been staying under his protection up till today, and still lives in the comfort of his domain, at the age of seventeen.

Sesshoumaru once made a promise to Rin for all to hear that she would stay with him in the castle, under his protection and would only leave his domain when she died of old age, for he would revive her if she was killed or died any other way.

The strong protectiveness for Rin has made people and demon alike wonder whether The Lord really disliked and despised all humans. Although The Lord's will was questioned time and again, no one got any answer for none dared to ask the Lord in fear of death.

There were some that thought that The Lord's change in mind for that human would make him weaker and tried to kill him, but of course none succeeded. There were also some that thought that if The Lord could accept one human being, he would accept others, those were either punished severely or killed. There were also some who thought that Rin was a weakness to The Lord and tried to kill her or kidnap her, either to harm The Lord or do what they thought was for The Lord's good. Those were killed of mercilessly.

Rin was what some would call a beauty, but most just found her cute. She had quite a number of people wanting her for a mate was well sought for. The Lord allowed her to go out with the few people whom she found nice, but when ever they begin to be dislikeable to her, he either chased them of or killed them.

Rin has been dating a number of demons and is currently going out with Kiso, the son of Kobaru, the caretaker of the Southern Lands. There were hints that Kiso and Rin relationship might become permanent when Rin gains her adulthood at the age of eighteen.

Well, as for Sesshoumaru, he is still a single demon, well sought after, but he rejects most women who comes after him, and only tried to date a few more pleasing to the eyes females. He still fought some battles, but hardly any were his match after his half-brother Inuyasha disappeared. He still looked like he just came into his twenties, even though he was about 9 999, years old, on the way to being in his prime year as a demon.


	2. Warnings

**Disclaimers: **None of the characters except those i made up belong to me.

**Author's** **Note**: Hey people sorry for taking such a long time to update, I hope this chapter is good too, please review!

**Warnings**

"Lord Sesshoumaru, Lord Kobaru caretaker of the Southern Lands came by, he passed this message to be given to you." one of the many servants in Sesshoumaru's castle said, bowing low down to her lord, putting a piece of paper under his nose. Sesshoumaru looked at the servant and nodded an almost invisible nod, took the note and swept past without a word.

Sesshoumaru, walked down the hallway, feeling very irritated, in fact, Sesshoumaru, the Lord of the Western Lands was furious, why did people always want to interfere with him? Even if Rin was killed someday, he would not be weakened. He was after all only her guardian. He would either revive her or kill her killer, then he would go back to his own life. After all, it was his responsibility as an adoptive father to her. He had been looking after her for close to a decade!

How long would it take for people to start to give up on the idea of weakening him through Rin? He was never weak! Now he had to go and meet Kobaru at the dancing halls, not that he disliked going there, but the incompetence of his underlings was something he could not tolerate. Yet, Kobaru was an efficient and wise demon, he would not disturb his Lord's peace unless it was of grave importance, might be he would wait and go and see what Kobaru wants before passing his judgement about Kobaru's incompetence.

Might be Kobaru would give him a valid reason as to why he asked to meet at the dancer halls, about threats to Rin's well being.

**Riyo's pov**

I am a dancer; I just dance at the dancing halls near the castle Lord Sesshoumaru stays in. The job of a dancer is not very hard, and the pay is quite okay, we also have a place to stay there, not that we must stay there, but since it's free, it's better than renting a room outside.

I have a much diluted blood of a sorceress and demon, and was the descendent from the people of the undergrounds of the Western Lands, some even suspected that I might be a faraway descendent of the Lady of the Western undergrounds, as I have the same markings as the Lady, only much faded. My guess of my age is about four hundred years old, but it is not accurate, and I look at about eighteen years old of a human. That is my full knowledge of myself, and if you asked me more, I would not know myself.

I lost my memory a few hundred years ago, the first thing I could remember about my life was waking up in a pile of snow, wearing a dancer's dress, thinking that I was a dancer from the nearer areas, I went to the nearest city, the capital of the Western Lands, and went to the dancing halls there, however, they said that there did not know me, but I could have a job as a dancer there if I wanted. I took up the job, and surprisingly, people, humans and demons alike all said that I danced very well. I have been staying there since.

_Flashback_

"_Where am I? Who am I?" I walked around the clearings, I could few the strong demonic aura around, and knew that I had to leave soon, but where do I leave to? I looked down and saw my clothing, a black colour halter dress, the material of that of a dancer dress, might be I was a dancer…_

_I walked around, looking for the nearest city, walking and walking, a toad-like demon came into sigh, I asked him, "Do you know where the nearest city with a dancing hall is?" The toad demon stared at me like I was dirt, looking me up and down._

"_How would you not know, the nearest city is to the west, where the Great Lord Sesshoumaru, Lord of all lands, Glory of the Morning, Lord of the Lights live. You ignorant country bum, not knowing where the great, wonderful, marvellous……" I bowed and left him to his mutterings about his Lord and walked off, so, I was in the Western Lands, no wonder there was this strong demonic aura, it must be The Lords one._

_I walked west until I reached the city, I looked around, and finally found the dancing halls, I stared at it, it did not seem familiar at all, was I at the right place? _

"_Are you alright? You seem a bit lost, do you need any help?" A dancer came forward to ask me, I stared at her helplessly…_

"_It's alright, you can stay here and get a job here, it is a good pay and you would be well looked after." She said again. I stared at her, still trying to recall my past, but tried as I could, I couldn't, so I stayed there._

**Flashback over**

Although I do have some sorceress and demon blood, it is too diluted, hence I was as good as a human with a long life.

Besides working as a dancer, two hundred years ago, I took up an apprenticeship as a healer, and did quite well in it, having quite a bit of potential in that area, now I have become a full master in that area, and am a well known healer of the commoners, although I rarely used my skill. I am not a healer to earn money, it was just an interest that I had.

"Riyo, there is another performance coming up in ten minutes, be ready, they say that a Lord of great importance would be here, dance well and we might earn more money tonight." One of the dancers came in and said, interrupting my thoughts. (AN: They earn money like this, there is an entrance fee of ten dollars, and then the audience can give any extra amount of tip to any dancer that he founds danced well, 10 of the tip would be given to the owner of the dancer hall and the rest would be kept by the dancers. they also have a fixed amount of money given to them every month.)

**Normal pov**

Sesshoumaru walked into the dancing halls, pass the main entrance, with a majestic light, and wonderful paintings on the wall into the theatre. The theatre had two levels, the bottom for the commoners, the top were mainly for the Lords, but there were commoners there as well. There was also a higher level with only four to five seats, usually retained for important people, great lords, or people of great prestige. The stage was very big, with red curtains hanging at the side, and the whole place was very grand. Sesshoumaru of course went to the highest level, where Kobaru was already waiting.

When Sesshoumaru stepped in, he could feel a very strange demonic aura coming from the theatre. It was a kind of aura that was very familiar, yet he could not put his hands on it. When he stepped up to the highest level, Kobaru stood up and paid his respects to his lord.

Sesshoumaru nodded his head and they both sat down, Sesshoumaru first then Kobaru.

"What is all the fuss about? It had better be good, or I would have no choice but to eliminate you," Sesshoumaru said, looking at Kobaru. Kobaru was the closet one would come to call as Sesshoumaru's friend.

Kobaru looked down, and then looked straight into Sesshoumaru's eyes and said, "My lord, there is trouble, remember a few years back my son Kiso reported a threat of a demon uprising in the Northern lands?"

Sesshoumaru stared at Kobaru, irritated and puzzled, and said, "I know that, I sent your son to go and eliminate him, and all went smoothly, now stop beating around the bush, you did not call me here to reminisce the pass, what is wrong?"

"Well, my lord, in the pass few weeks, reports have been that this demon has been spotted around the Western Lands, and we believe he has been revived. It's said that he was very displeased with you, and wants to take revenge; however, he has not much power yet. He has this fatal poison that has no antidote, and he plans to give it to Rin, as a warning to you. Rin would be incurable if she drank it. There used to be a cure for this when the Western undergrounds were still intact, but now……" Kobaru said.

"Well, now lets see what this demon can do, Kiso managed to destroy this demon before, send him to do it again, and investigate on who was the one who revived this demon, I want that demon. If that demon comes after Rin, he would have to get through me, step up the security in the city as well as the castle." Sesshoumaru ordered.

"Yes my lord," Kobaru knelt down to receive his instructions. Then they both stayed for the performance.

The song came on and the stage curtains opened, it was smoky. When the smoke cleared, in the middle of the stage was Riyo, one of the best well known dancers all over the lands. She started to dance, and you could see the people starting to pay attention.

Sesshoumaru stared at her, he had only seen her dance one other time, and he had to admit that she was a good dancer. Her movements went with the music, and she looked as though she was drowning in the music, and nothing would stop her. He had also heard of her, she had come here a few hundred years ago, and that was the extent of his knowledge.

**Riyo's pov**

I came on stage and started to dance. The smoke started to clear and I danced gracefully, hearing the music. I danced and danced and danced, drunken in to the music. Soon, it was over, and I looked up to give my curtsy. My eyes swept pass the audience below and those on the second floor, I noticed people on the highest floor and was rather surprised, that place was usually empty, and was her favourite place to go to when there was no one about.

I looked closer and saw a flaxen hair coloured fox demon, beside him, I saw a silver hair demon, He turned towards my direction and I stared at him, looking into the amber eyes, I dimly heard some voices, but before I could register anything, there was blackness.

"Riyo, Riyo, are you alright?" I heard the same voice I heard a few hundred years ago.

I opened my eyes and smiled, "Maki, I'm alright, what happened?"

"You don't remember? You fainted on stage, what happened, luckily the audience thought that it was part of the show, or we would have chaos!" Maki said. Maki was the owner of the dancing halls, she was a dancer too. She was my only friend that I ever knew.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong, I must be too tired," I said, smiling at her. I knew I was forgetting something, but shrugged it off. I smiled at Maki, and reassured her that I was alright.

I suddenly had a bad feeling that something bad was going to happen, and I would get involved, however, I just put it off as a superstition.

**Sesshoumaru's pov**

The dance ended and the Riyo looked up, as she stared in my direction, I could suddenly feel confusion radiating from her, then, she fainted. The humans below thought it was part of the show, and cheered wildly as the curtains closed, however, I knew that she fainted.

I shrugged it off, it was none of my business, I reminded Kobaru of his task and went back to the castle.

"Lord Sesshoumaru! You are back!" I heard Rin's excited screams the moment I stepped into the castle. She immediately started talking about how Kiso came and visited her and her day, before asking me about mine, I just said it was fine, asked her to be careful this few days. She smiled happily at me and I walked off.

I was rather proud of Rin, she grew up worthy to be his daughter, and would help him with his household matters. She could be taken out to be seen by others without being a disgrace even though she is only a human.

All this only made me angrier that some stupid demons was going to try and kill my daughter. What was their problem! I would make sure that that demon would not succeed.


	3. The attack

**Authors note: Thank you all of you for your reviews, I am so sorry for not updating for so long, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the previous ones. **

**Disclaimers: None od ths characters belong to me except for those I created.**

**The attack:**

**Riyo's pov**

I sat at my quiet sanctuary on the highest floor of the audience seats, and stared into the large, empty and quiet theatre. Something bad was going to happen soon, I knew it. There is evil heading towards the western lands, and I knew that I did not have the ability to stop it.

"Riyo, what's the matter? You have seemed rather disturbed since your faint from the last performance, are you not feeling well?" Maki asked concern shown clearly on her face as she walked up to me. I just smiled briefly at her, and continued with my starings at the stage.

"Maki, if I ever leave here, don't tell anyone that you ever knew me. Don't ask, just promise me." I said softly, turning around and staring at her. She stared at me with a puzzled look, looking for an answer as to why I was saying something like this.

I avoided her stare and sighed inwardly to myself. What was wrong with me! I turned to Maki and said, "Never mind, when that day comes you will understand what that means, for now, just take it that I did not say anything at all. I'm alright, do not worry, just feeling a little depressed."

I continued to stare at the stage, ignoring my surroundings completely, and soon Maki left me to my own thoughts to go back to her work. I was feeling uneasy, danger was coming, and I felt helpless towards it. The helpless feeling was going to kill me. The feeling that something was going to happen to the people I care for and all I could do was sit and stare into open space.

**Normal pov**

A few days had passed since Kobaru's warnings to Sesshoumaru, however there was still no movement from the enemy, and things had quietened down. Not that the security in the castle had gone down, security was tight and Rin was in good hands, being protected round the clock, and never let out of sight. However, Kiso still had not found the demon that was behind this, and was becoming rather desperate to find him before things got out of hand.

**Sesshoumaru's pov**

Rin went about her usual life. I did not tell her that she was in danger, just told her that the soldiers were doing their annual drills earlier. Rin, being like Rin, however seemed to understand and realise that something was wrong, and had been looking rather worried this few days, hardly running out to pick flowers and smiling less then usual. It has been rather irritating this few days, if that demon was going to attack, could he attack now, this very moment, at least I could get rid of this riddance faster, and let things go back to it's normal state, without all this tension and everyone going around in pairs with their weapons.

_"If you really want it that way, sure."_ An eerie voice suddenly came out behind me. I turned around, my sword drawn, surprised that someone could sneak up behind me without me noticing. Hoever, all I saw was a dark figure smirking at me before disappearing.

I was going to kill someone; they were guards that were supposed to be guarding the entrance. How did that guy come in! I swore softly to myself as I started to run towards Rin's room as fast as I could, startling people along the way, as well as alerting the guards who had already failed in their job.

**Normal pov**

Sesshoumaru pushed open the door of Rin's room, and started to curse even more. He was too late! All he saw was the figure with his claws against the vein in Rin's neck, as he was about to stop him, it turned at smiled at him, and then disappeared. Sesshoumaru continued to curse silently to himself and tried to sniff out where the intruder had gone, however, to his surprise, there was no trace of the intruder, no smell, no demonic aura, nothing, nothing at all.

Sesshoumaru was about to try his luck and try to chase after the figure when Rin fainted. Luckily for her, Sesshoumaru caught her just before her head hit the ground. Hearing the commotion, Jaken finally decided that there was something wrong, and ran in to the room. He saw Rin lying in Sesshoumaru's hands.

"Get a healer! Faster!" Jaken screamed out loud and one of the startled servants turned and ran as fast as he could for the healer before her lord started to go on a killing spree and kill anyone in sight.

"Get Kobaru, here, now, and Kiso too." Sesshoumaru instructed calming down slightly, before putting Rin on her bed.

The healers soon arrived and started to try and find out what was wrong with Rin. Everybody was chased out of the room, so when Kobaru and Kiso arrived, all there saw was Sesshoumaru leaning on the wall looking like he was very calm, however, his aura was another matter. Servants were avoiding this corridor except for Jaken who was pacing to and fro, without seeming to realise that the figure near him was on the verge of killing something, namely a small green toad looking demon who had a ridiculous looking hat and had a brain the size of a pea.

"My lord, it happened didn't it? The enemy attacked right?" Kobaru asked, kneeling to his lord. Sesshoumaru glanced at him, with the look of I'm going to kill someone and it might be you on his face. Kiso slammed his fist on the wall, muttering to himself how useless he was.

"Yes, do not state the obvious, and may I ask who neglected his responsibilities to allow this to happen?" Sesshoumaru asked sarcastically, staring at Kobaru and his son, his irritation increasing.

"Please, my lord now is not the time to blame someone, we have all tried our best, the enemy was more deadly and quicker than we thought. We underestimated it. Now we can only try our best to safe Lady Rin." Kobaru said, trying to appease Sesshoumaru and solve the problem at the same time.

Just then, one of the healers came out. "How is her ladyship?" Kiso asked anxiously, grabbing the sleeve of the healer. Kobaru put his hand on Kiso's shoulder and shook his head, and Kiso relaxed his grip on the healer, enough for him to breathe and talk without dying from the lack of oxygen.

"We…" The healer stuttered, not daring to go on in fear of the three dangerous demons surrounding him. Sesshoumaru gave the healer the death glance which spoke something to the effect of talk now and die later or don't talk and die now, and the two powerful and irritated demons on each side of him helped illustrate his point quite effectively.

"Well… my lords, well… that is… the poison that was given to Lady Rin… well… you see… it is a fatal poison… that was lost a long time ago due to the extinction of the plant that was the main component of this poison. The plant when extinct when the western undergrounds collapsed… so… we do not know how it surfaced again… and… the poison… the poison… when hits the main vein of the victim, is a lost case for the victim, she would be as good as dead… and… the… worst thing… about this… is… that the antidote has long been lost…" _Great, now his giving me a history on this poison, how nice, I might as well just go and look up the whole profile of this poison in the history texts in my library!_ Sesshoumaru thought to himself rolling his eyes up towards the ceiling exasperated to the point of irritation, as the healer finished his sentence looking rather relieved to still be alive.

"And what is the cure than?" Kiso asked anxiously.

"My lord… currently there is no cure, as the antidote has been lost… and the demon hit the… the… main vein on L...a…d…y R…i…n." The healer said stuttering nervously, fearing for his life even more, as he felt Kiso's demonic aura rise higher then what was deemed possible.

"If I used tenseiga on her after she died, would it save her?" Sesshoumaru asked the healer.

"Well my lord…, you see…, you have already used tenseiga on Lady Rin before…, so it is uncertain whether it would work on her…, and besides even if you managed to revive her…, she could die again…, as the poison would still be in her body." The healer said very nervously. By this time he was getting really scared, for his life and that of his family. The three very intimidating demons in front of him seemed to threaten to want to take his life any moment soon, and he was starting to say his last minute prayers.

Luckily for him, a certain toad saved him. "Lord Sesshoumaru, I have an idea, why not look for the descendents of the western undergrounds people. Might be one of them would have the talent to heal lady Rin, after all their lady had that talent before, might others have to." Jaken said excitedly, praising himself at how smart he was and now Sesshoumaru would stop hitting him.

Unluckily for both the healer and Jaken, more for the healer, as his hope of being saved was dashed; Jaken was a terribly stupid creature, for all three demons and the demon stared at his "incredulous" idea. Looking for one of the descendents was utterly impossible, as there were close to extinct, and their line was so spread out, even I they found a descendent, Rin would be dead by that time, besides, their blood was too diluted to be of any use even if one with that power was found. They were basically humans with a very long life.

Jaken stared up, and once again gave them hope that maybe he was not so stupid. "No my lords, I remember something about someone, I'm sure it's very important," Jaken said, thinking hard for what he had forgotten. Unfortunately for him, four rocks hit him on the head at the same time, causing him to be unconscious, and thus blocking his train of thoughts to his memories.

After the practically useless conversation with Jaken, the three demons and one human tried to come up with something (technically the human trying to come up with something to save his life.).

Jaken however woke up from his unconsciousness. "No my lords, thanks to your blow, I remembered something. I met this demon, but she wasn't really a demon, I couldn't tell…" Four rocks again hit this very pitiful toad and glared at him to speed up his story.

"Anyway, a few years back I met this demon like person, she had a very familiar smell, now that I think back, she had the smell of the western undergrounds people, she must be a descendent of them. She also had the smell of poison on her, might be she really has the similar power to the lady of the western undergrounds! I remember…"

_Flashback_

_"Lord Sesshoumaru! Where are you? Why have your abandoned your humble loyal servant!" __I said shouting for my lord. I walked around the place in hope of finding Lords Sesshoumaru, when a dancer came up to me._

_She asked me, "Do you know where the nearest city with a dancing hall is?" I stared at her disdainfully as she was rather dirty. Observing how she looked, how dare someone of such a low position ask the most loyal of Sesshoumaru's servant a question? What adolescent._

"_How would you not know, the nearest city is to the west, where the Great Lord Sesshoumaru, Lord of all lands, Glory of the Morning, Lord of the Lights live. You ignorant country bum, not knowing where the great, wonderful, marvellous, most brilliant, most handsome, most gorgeous, most suave, most best demon lives." I said, thinking how Lord Sesshoumaru would be so proud of me to educate his people about his greatness, how nice of me to be so nice to someone of such a low class. However, that rude person was gone before I finished, how ungrateful of her, to run away from my teachings._

_End of flashback_

"… After that I found you my lord, and forgot about her." Jaken said, finishing his story.

"Well…" Sesshoumaru said, goose bumps rising from all the praise he got from the male toad demon. He was beginning to doubt the sexual interest that his subordinate had and made a point to remember not to let Jaken within touching distance of him, or not to tell Jaken when he bathe, and most certainly not let Jaken any where near his things or into his room.

After giving everybody a shock of seeing their great lord shudder, Sesshoumaru continued. "Now, that is something, do you know where she is now?" Sesshoumaru asked, getting interested in this person, his hopes raised for a possibility that there was a cure for Rin, though still creeped out by Jakens overwhelming show of "loyalty" towards him.

"Well no…" said Jaken, and before Jaken could finish his sentence, he was knocked unconscious by four rocks from four rather irritated individuals (namely two demons, one taiyoukai and one human), at the lack of sense in a certain toad to say such things of high hopes only to dash their hopes with such senseless words that were too "indescribable".

"My lord, there is a high possibility of chance that you might find her in this very city and most probably in the dancers hall judging from what Jaken had said," Kobaru said, pondering over the new information given, slightly distracted. Interesting, might be the line of the western undergrounds did not get extinct he thought to himself, smirking slightly, at that thought. Remembering the times when Sesshoumaru got irritated with a certain lady from the western undergrounds. How interesting it would be if that certain lady survived. However, it came to him that she could not have survived this whole ordeal.

"Then what are you waiting for, go find her and bring her here." Sesshoumaru barked at Kobaru irritated at the sudden senselessness that seemed to hit all his subordinates.

Kobaru jumped out of his thoughts and rushed to do his job, find this dancer, if she really was one, and if she really was there, and bring her back to the castle. He could also ask her some questions, might be the lady might have survived the whole ordeal. Might be……

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	4. An invitation, a rejection, or not

**An invitation, a rejection, or might be not…**

**Author's note: Hey people, thank you for all your reviews, sorry for not updating for so long, my exams are just over, and I have been so busy for the past few weeks, so sorry. I'm not sure this chapter is as nice as the other chapters. I tried to put in more descriptions. Is Riyo turning out to be very irritating? I also put in more conversations, is it very boring? Please review and tell me how you feel, no flames please. Thank you**

**Normal pov **

Kobaru marched quickly down the streets with two of his subordinates to the dancing halls. The urgency of the demons could be felt clearly, for almost everyone got out of their way the moment that they sensed the trio coming anywhere close to themselves.

The trio soon reached the dancing halls. Kobaru marched in alone, leaving his two subordinates outside to stand guard. This time, there was no marvelling of the interiors of the dancing halls, or of the dancers, it was just strictly business, all professional, and nothing more.

"Can I help you my lord?" A voice asked respectfully. Kobaru turned around to see a wolf demon come out to greet Kobaru. He was wearing a rich coloured hakama. His hair and eyes was brown in colour. He looked like he was in his twenties. His demonic aura was not too strong, but strong enough.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Kazemura, the owner of this dancing hall." The wolf demon said respectfully.

"Well, Kazemura, I do need your help. Do you have any dancers here that came to this place around two hundred years ago? She is most probably a demon or a half demon, wearing a dancers dress and had a faint smell of poison over her." Kobaru said, almost anxiously.

"Well… my Lord, there is someone here that might fit your description. She goes by the name Riyo, no one really knows her real name, and apparently she lost her memory before she appeared at our premises. One of our coaches for dancing took pity in her and took her in, she has been here since, and we gave her the name Riyo. In fact she's quite famous for her dancing, and some know her for her healing skills that she acquired a few years back. Could you wait here for a while, while I go and ask for her?" The Kazemura asked helpfully and politely.

"Riyo, there's some lord looking for you, would you rather come out and see him or would you rather I ask him to come in?" A familiar voice came from behind the door screens of Riyo's room.

"Kazemura, who's that person? Why does he want to see me?" Riyo asked curiously.

"He's not specifically asking for you, he just described someone whose description was very similar to yours, and had the same plight as you. I have no idea why he wants to talk to you, he did not mention anything in particular, however I can recognise him, he is the Southern Lord, or rather caretaker, Lord Kobaru." Kazemura replied.

"Well… Thank you Kazemura, could you ask him to come up alone please without any of his subordinates or other extra people, I had rather they did not disturb the peace here for the other dancers." Riyo replied.

"Sure, no problem, I will be right back." Kazemura replied.

**Riyo's pov**

I sighed to myself after Kazemura left. Trouble was really here. I did not know what those people out there wanted with me, but it certainly would not be anything good to me or the people whom I care for. The Overlord… I heard of him somewhere, wasn't he the one…

"Knock…! Knock…!" Someone knocked at the door, interrupting me from my thoughts.

**Kobaru's pov**

The wolf demon finally came back. "My lord, follow me…" He said.

Mission accomplished, she was willing to see me, and all would most probably go smoothly. Walking up the stairways and through the different corridors, I wondered to myself. Was she the one that I was supposed to look for? Could she heal Rin? Would she know anything about the lady? All this thoughts were running through the back of my head and I was this close to getting an answer!

I came to the room of this dancer Riyo. I still could not smell any smell of poison yet. Could she be the wrong person? If she was, then what was going to happen to Rin? I knocked on the door.

"Come in," a female voice came through. The voice was gentle and soft yet one could sense a mysterious air around it.

I opened the door and stepped in. In front of me was a… woman that looked the age of a seventeen years old girl kneeling down. That wasn't what I expected, I expected a more mature lady.

She had the markings of the same lady of many years ago, only more faded, she was rather tanned, and she had black hair with one strip of silver in the front. She tied her hair into a half pony tail, with a silver string to tie it up, there were two tiny bells at the end of the strings that made twinkling sounds, and a small fan pin was pinned just above her pony tail. She was rather thin with a good figure, not to full, not to flat. She was rather petite, looking rather fragile, yet not really there. Her body was quite well toned with no excess. She was taller than the average girls, about 1.7 metre.

She wore a black colour dress that was rather tight, but not to tight, flaring a little at the bottom of the dress, it was about knee length, and was cross backed. The dress was those that seemed to stick to you, a not so common dance dress. She had a necklace around her neck that looked rather ancient and important.

She had a piece of black colour cloth that was rather translucent around her eyes, those that you could still see through it, and she was wearing black leather army boots, with black net stockings, and black leather gloves on her hand, and on the table beside her were two metal fans that had intricate designs on them. The most important thing of all, she had a very slight smell of poison around her.

**Riyo's pov**

A fox demon was what stepped out from behind the doors. He had orange brownish hair colour, as well as hazel coloured eyes. He looked like he was into his twenties, not very handsome, but not under the category of ugly. He also wore a yellow and blue colour haori. He seemed quite strong in his demonic aura and stance. He had a long sword around his waist and a few daggers tugged into his haori, and he looked rather serious.

There was silence in the room, until Kazemura broke the silence by announcing his departure. After Kazemura left, I asked the demon that just came in, "May I ask why my lord is looking for me?"

"Ah, madam, I am Kobaru, caretaker of the Southern lands. I have been sent by the Lord of the Western Lands to invite you to his castle to help in the healing of his ward that has most unfortunately been poisoned by demons unknown to us for now." Kobaru said smoothly.

I smiled slightly at his comment, trying to hide most of the detail from me, he still manage to state what he wanted. This demon was very skilled in political talk. "What could a small little dancer like me know about the healing of any poison, the healers at the castle should be more competent then me," I asked, if he wanted to play with words, I would follow through.

"Madam, our lord summoned you, this is an order from your lord, won't you at least go and have a look as to what he wants? Besides your excellent healing skills have not gone past the notice of our lord." Kobaru said, I almost snorted out loud, what excellent healing skills? I hardly ever heal anybody, and how would some far off lord know of my so called skills?

"My lord, I believe there is no law that says that a commoner must agree to go and heal someone of a higher status? Besides, isn't there a law that forbids commoners to interfere in the lives of a lord or lady of a higher status?" I retorted politely, declining Kobaru's offer at the same time. After all, technically he couldn't do anything to me if I refused.

"Madam, Lord Sesshoumaru's words are the law will always be the law in this land." Kobaru said stiffly to me. Now, now, might be some fox demon was getting irritated, I bet he did not expect some small time dancer to reject him so outright, bet he expected me to nod my head and say yes..

"Well my lord, shouldn't the lord of all, himself keep to his own law? If he doesn't, how is he to gain the respect of his followers?" I asked, questioning this lord again. After all, what law is that if even the one who made the law did not keep to his own law?

"That is beside the point madam, anyway, isn't it the responsibility of a healer to heal whoever how comes for help? Aren't you breaking that code?" Kobaru asked politely. He was a smart one, politically, I was right, but he was using the responsibilities of a healer, smart move.

"My lord, there is no point in bringing me to the castle, could you be certain that I won't poison Lady Rin further? Besides, what makes you think I have the ability to heal Lady Rin?" I questioned. If he wanted to jump about different topics like that, so could I, tit for tat.

"Madam, even if you poisoned Rin further, it won't change her current fate by much, and you have the bloodline of the healers from the Western undergrounds, you have a higher chance of healing Lady Rin then any other healers in the castle." Kobaru said. Now he caught me, how did he know about my bloodline? Even I was not sure what my bloodline was. Was that ladies condition really that bad that he had to tell me in such straight terms?

"My lord, if you were counting on my bloodline to help in the healing of Lady Rin, I would have to refuse your kind offer." I said, trying to keep the shock and irritation off my face. After all, I did not even know who my ancestors were, and now some lord just came by, and attempted to make use of my possible ancestral ties for his own good means.

"Madam, my lord would not be happy that you refused his offer, who knows what he would do when he becomes unhappy." Kobaru warned. He was finally giving up on this discussion.

"My Lord, is that a threat? Even if you burnt down this whole place, I still won't be able to help you. My bloodline is too diluted to do anything, not to even say something close to what my ancestors did, if they were my ancestors, besides, even if my bloodline was strong enough, I won't have any idea as to how to I am going to use my abilities, not at all." I said feeling a little helpless as I could not help at all, yet a little irritated that this demon just came in and threatened me.

"Couldn't you at least come to the palace and see what Lord Sesshoumaru wants." Kobaru suggested. At least he was gentlemanly enough to compromise even if only just a tiny winy little bit.

"My Lord, why don't you report to your lord then come back here and tell me what he wants. It would be inappropriate for a commoner like me to come and go from the castle like she owned the place." I said. If he was willing to compromise, so could I, after all, there was no harm to that.

"So it shall be, I will come back tomorrow madam," Kobaru said, ending this discussion abruptly.

Before he closed the door, he said silently and stiffly, "Madam, although this might seem all about politics to you, all this talk about saving some ladies live, however, I would like you to know that we all care about Lady Rin and none of us wants anything to happen to her. I hope you could feel the same way too, and would do your best to help her." Then he closed the door behind him.

I froze at his words, they sounded sincere and serious, unlike the previous tone, he was taking. I sighed… why not…

**Kobaru's pov**

My, my, what a conversation… that was not a simple woman, she appeared respectful and polite all the time, however, at every point, she was refusing my request in a very subtle way. It might just take the lord himself to personally get that woman to even step into the castle, I thought to myself as I walked the corridors to get out of this dancing hall.

As I was walking, I heard a familiar female voice shouting behind me, "Wait, wait a moment."

I turned around and saw the woman I had been talking to just a few minutes ago. She had a luggage bag slung around her shoulders, with a few books in one hand and her fans in the other.

"Madam?" I asked slightly confused.

"I'm going back with you." She said.

"Why the sudden change of mind?" I asked puzzled. Just now she seemed so reluctant to leave this place and now, without any persuasion she was suddenly so enthusiastic to go.

"Well… you spent quite a bit of your time here arguing with me, I should at least show my gratitude in your entertainment by helping you with your task, I couldn't just let you go back and get reprimanded by your lord, could I?" She asked, smiling a sweet smile.

I stared at her with an even more puzzled expression.

"Nah… well, it's just that Lady Rin is kind of innocent… Just because I dislike politics and royalty and all the scheming doesn't mean I shouldn't try and help her." She said more seriously.

"Well, no matter what, thank you," I said, putting out my hand to her. She smiled and shook it.

Might be she wasn't such a bad person after all…

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	5. Leaving home for a new place

**Leaving home for a new place**

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**Author's note: Hey people, a new chapter. It's one of my longest chapters… In this chapter, Riyo goes to the castle. There will also be a friendship growing between Riyo and Kobaru. However, they are not supposed to be paired together. This is also not a Rin and Sesshoumaru pairing, they only have a father and daughter relationship. This chapter does not really go anywhere, as I did not want Rin and Riyo to meet in this chapter, it would be too long…Hope you all don't mind. I tried to do a longer Sesshoumaru pov… Hope it's not to out of character… This chapter is also a little long, but future ones may not be this long… No flames please...Review, and hope you like it. **

**Disclaimers: I don't own anything in here except for those characters that I created on my own, and whatever came out of my own creativity.**

………………………………………………………………………………………………**Riyo's pov**

"Kazemura, I have to leave here, thank you for looking after me all this while, I really appreciated it. If I could, I would repay this debt to you one day, I'm sorry, I have to leave on such short notice," I said, apologising rapidly to Kazemura. Without him, I would never have managed to survive until today. I would still be wandering on the streets.

"Well… If you have to leave, I can't stop you, after all, you did not belong to such places from the beginning, and as I said when you first came, that you could leave whenever you wanted to or felt like it… When will you be leaving? Will you be coming back anytime soon?" Kazemura asked slowly, after a long time, responding to what I had said.

"Now… and I don't think I will be coming back anytime soon… in fact I don't even know whether I will be coming back here at all after all this has ended." I replied back.

"Well, now, a pity for us to lose one of our best dancers just like that, our business will surely go down greatly after you leave. Hope you manage to do well out there, and come back if you can, even if it's just for a visit." Kazemura said, sighing slightly, giving a rather forced tight smile, trying to lighten the atmosphere that was turning rather low between us.

"Your business won't go down just because of one dancer, thank you for being so understanding, if circumstances allowed it, I would come back, my good friend" I said trying to be more cheerful, giving him a small friendly hug and a grateful smile.. I knew that Kazemura would be understand and let me go. After all, he was my only other friend here besides Maki.

I hesitated slightly then said, "Could you help me say my farewells to Maki and ask her to look after herself, and that to remember what I said… forget that, could you just pass this letter to her, and… can you help me look after Silvermoon for me? I won't bring her along…" I said, pointing in the vague direction of my room in which my kitten pet was in.

"Of course, goodbye and take care," Kazemura said as I left the room, to the sight of Kobaru leaning against the door, waiting for me. I waved my hands as we walked off, putting on my cloak in the mean time, keeping my face turned away from Kobaru so that he could not see my eyes watering slightly.

**Normal pov**

Kobaru and Riyo slowly walked out of the dancing halls to meet up with his two subordinates, the saddened atmosphere, and lowered spirits seeming to have affected everyone, and then they started their slow trek back to Sesshoumaru's castle which was at the over the hills, into the valleys, where there were a lot of flowers and trees and a river as well as one of the biggest waterfalls.

On the way, Kobaru asked, "So, madam, would you mind if we talked on the way to the castle?"

"Anything… whatever that makes you happy, my lord," Riyo replied in a soft and saddened voice, still not really managing to get the conversation with Kazemura out of her head yet.

"Was it really that hard for you to leave that place, madam?" Kobaru asked curiously.

"Well, that was the only place that I could call home, and it accepted me calling it home, my only two friends are from there. Of course it is, but still as I have said my lord, I did that willingly." Riyo said, a little startled that he had noticed how dispirited she was about leaving the dancing halls.

"That guy, back there the one you were talking to, if I may ask, is he your lover?" Kobaru asked.

"_Coughs_, He's definitely not my_ cough_ lover_ cough cough_, he's just one of my best friends, my lord. He was the one that agreed to take me in even though I did not have any qualifications to be a dancer. When I first got in, he was the one who helped to protect me when people despised me. He risked his reputation just by doing all that for me, and I am more than just a little grateful to him. If I could, I wish I could repay him somehow," Riyo said, sighing a little.

"Oh… If that is the case, why are you still helping us madam? I mean you could just reject us and stay here with your friend at a place you call home, and repay them for their kindness. Why help some unknown lord that you have never heard of or met close up before today? Why help someone you have only seen just once in your whole entire life?" Kobaru asked.

"My, my, aren't you changing to rapidly, or did you want me to reject you that badly in the first place?" Riyo asked jokingly, trying to lighten their moods before they all became depressed.

Before Kobaru could continue, Riyo said, muttering a few words at the end that were impossible to hear, "Well, as I have said before, Rin is innocent, besides, there are people like you and her adopted father and her lover, you all care for her, if she dies, so many would be heartbroken and mourning for her, for the lose of a lover, or a daughter… I won't want any of you all to be miserable. _If I were to die, no one would mourn for me_…"

"I beg your pardon? What were your last few words?" Kobaru asked

"Never mind, nothing much, that was my reason anyway, I don't want anyone to be mourning for the lose of their dear ones…" Riyo said.

"Well, madam, you do have a very big heart if that is your real reason," Kobaru said.

"Why did you leave your pet behind?" Kobaru asked.

"My, aren't you a curious one… Well, won't Lord Sesshoumaru be rather disturbed if I brought my cat anywhere near his territory? Besides, I do not know how my life would go from here, bringing her along with me would just risk her life more." Riyo replied.

"Just a curious question, madam, just now back in your room you were so guarded and closed mouth about what you were saying, hardly giving away anything… Why are you now so relaxed, and answering every of my questions so directly?" Kobaru asked.

"…… It's just that…… Now I have made up my mind to help you, I might as well get used to talking to you, since I most probably have to see you for the next few months. Besides, your intentions are good, so no use being so guarded." Riyo answered, pondering the question deeply.

"Aren't you a bit too trusting? I mean I have only seen you once, what if I were lying to you?" Kobaru asked.

"By asking that proves you are not lying, my lord, besides what good would it do you to lie to me, I'm only a young girl that dances in the dancing halls, how can that help you?" Riyo replied.

"You could say it like this, I have an instinct or feeling which is rather accurate, and it is telling me now that you are not a bad person," Riyo said, seeing Kobaru's searching look.

"Oh… anyway, madam, I heard you lost your memory a few hundred years back, ever managed to remembered anything from your past? Or anyone from your past?" Kobaru asked.

"Nothing… Even what I know of my past today has been what people told me. Like that I was the descendant of the people from the Western undergrounds, I heard all that from Kazemura, as well as a few audience." Riyo replied starting to sound a little guarded again.

"Oh…" Kobaru said, sounding a little disappointed, he had hoped to get some leads on the lady of the Western undergrounds. However, this looked like a dead end to him.

"How did you hear about me?" Riyo asked suddenly, curious as to how the lords even heard her name.

"Actually, madam, Sesshoumaru's follower Jaken told us about you, apparently you have met him before." Kobaru said.

"Jaken? Who's that? I can't recall having seen any powerful demons who could be his lord's follower" Riyo asked puzzled.

"He's not very powerful, just a toad like demon, rather short, and ugly quite green and has a really big mouth you haven't seen him before madam?" Kobaru asked, his turn to get surprised

"Toad like figure… Oh! The one who was going on about how good his master was… He was quite scary, are you sure he is straight?" Riyo asked smiling slightly to Kobaru.

"Well… That is a very questionable point madam…" Kobaru replied looking almost serious, then they both started laughing.

"hahaha… That's scary, however, my lord, could you please stop calling me madam every time you say a sentence to me? Just call me Riyo that will do. I'm not really used to this madam thing, after all, you are so much older than me, and calling me madam makes me feel like I am at the same age as your aunt or even older." Riyo said smiling.

"Well, even though I'm not that old, if it pleases you, Riyo, then could you just call me Kobaru? Friends?" Kobaru asked putting his hand out, Riyo hesitantly shook it, as though not familiar with human contact, than shock it more confidently and looked Kobaru in the eyes.

"Friends."

It was a silent walk after the small declaration of friendship, until Riyo started asking, "So, what exactly is wrong with this Lady Rin? You said she was poisoned, but by what?"

"Well from what the healers told us, it is a poison whose main component is made up of the Siriturnus plant that has long been extinct when the western undergrounds collapsed. If it had hit other parts, Rin might be alright, however, it hit the main vein of Rin at the neck, and that is supposed to be fatal and without cure. The antidote has also been lost." Kobaru replied, remembering what he and Lord Sesshoumaru had researched on with the healer.

"Oh, Siriturnus plant… I've heard of that before. What is the main component of the antidote? Where was it last seen? How long has Lady Rin been poisoned?" Riyo asked.

"She was poisoned in the late mornings, yesterday, I guess it's about a day and a half ago, as for the main component of the antidote, we are still researching on it, should be able to tell you soon…" Kobaru replied.

"Oh…" Riyo said, then there was silence all the way until there reached the gates of the castle. Kobaru spoke to the guards and then they went in. Kobaru's two subordinates left.

**Riyo's pov**

The castle was huge, enormous. It was old and ancient, yet still very strong and rather homely. The walls were made out of marble. The entrance to the castle was about thrice my height and thrice my size. It was big. The walls around all had torches of light, however, the castle was not very bright, it was rather dim, yet you could still see in front of you, and there were guards in armours in almost every part of the castle. The tension in the castle was also very strong.

The moment I entered the castle, we were met with guards, supposedly to escort us to his lord's presence. We first passed through the great halls that were usually used only for entertaining visitors. There were the flags of the Western, Southern, Eastern, Northern lands as well as the united flags of all four parts made when there were untited, all hanging from the ceilings in the great halls. Standing in the halls would make one feel rather small.

After that, we went up a series of winding stairs, there were a few doors along the stairs. However, none looked important enough. There were also small windows along the stairs, which did not let much light in.

After walking up the stairs for a long time, one of the guards opened the door which leads to a large corridor, the corridor had a long red carpet on it, with ornaments at the side. Walking to the end of the corridor was a door which led to a hallway that led to the lord's study. The guards stayed with me as a formality while Kobaru went to report to his lord.

**Normal pov**

Kobaru walked into the hallways leading to the study room of Lord Sesshoumaru, where he always spent his evenings looking at reports and researching on things that came to his attention. He reached the room and knocked on the door softly and clearly so as not to irritate Sesshoumaru.

"Come in." was Sesshoumaru's short reply. Apparently, he was already rather irritated.

Kobaru kneeled to his lord, placing his right arm over his chest, after receiving the gesture to stand, he then reported his whole conversation with Riyo in her room, excluding the later conversations which would be rather useless to Sesshoumaru, as well as alerting him of the presence of someone outside his hallways to his study. Then there was a moment of silence.

"So… My lord, what is your plan?" Kobaru inquired curiously as Sesshoumaru still had not said anything.

"Ask her to come in," Sesshoumaru said.

"Yes my lord… How is lady Rin's condition by the way?" Kobaru asked hesitantly, rather concerned for Rin's health, after all, she was as good as his daughter in law already.

"She just remains the same, no improvement no deterioration. However, if someone does not do something soon, I'm afraid……" Sesshoumaru replied his voice saddening a bit, so little that it would have been unnoticed to the untrained who knew nothing of Sesshoumaru.

"Nothing would happen to her my lord," Kobaru said comfortingly to Sesshoumaru.

"Hopefully…" Sesshoumaru said wistfully.

Kobaru then left the study room quickly to go out and summon Riyo to see Sesshoumaru.

**Riyo's pov**

I waited at the door where Kobaru told me to wait. The castle was rather impressive… I wonder whether the owner would manage to live up to the expectations of his own castle. I stared at the walls of the castle, almost zoning out when Kobaru came back. He asked me to follow him to the study of the Lord of this castle, escorted by the two guards.

We walked along a long passageway, as we walked, I stared at the interior of the castle. On both sides of the wall, I could see different portraits with the name of the person below it and the dates it were painted. There were some that were dated to tens of thousands of years ago. However, all were of the royal family of the Inu family and the Western Lords.

There was a portrait of some half demon called Inuyasha, a human called Izayoi, there were also those of the Inu family's taiyoukais, like a picture of Inu no Taisho that was next to Izayoi. They were smiling happily, like they were feeling very blessed and fortunate to be together.

At the end of the corridor just before the lord's room, there was of course a portrait of Lord Sesshoumaru. It looked rather life like, from what I could tell, after all, I have never seen him before. He was rather pale, almost white, however, not the sickly kind of pale. He was rather tall, around 1.9 metre.

He had white silvery hair that was very long, covering his whole back, and he wore a royal looking white colour haori with an armour on one side of his shoulder, as well as a furry boa around the other side of his shoulder. He had two swords on the table beside him, one looked rather old, however, both were from the fangs of different powerful demons.

He had amber eyes, and looked like he just reached his twenties, about twenty one or so. He was rather lean, but not without muscles. He seemed to feel very confident, almost to the point of arrogance, and he looked like a man who knew where he stood in the society, and knew how to behave to his status.

He looked rather cold from my point of view. He had a smile on his face, but the smile did not seem to reach his eyes. This kind of smile seemed vaguely familiar to me, like I had seen it from afar at a very long time ago, in fact he looked rather familiar, like I had seen him… in the dancing halls!

"Knock, knock," Kobaru knocked on the door of the study which I presumed was his lord's study.

"Come in," came a deep voice from inside. Smiling an encouraging smile at me, Kobaru opened the door and let me into the room.

I walked into the room nervously and stared at the figure at the table, he was busily scribbling words onto a piece of paper. The room was rather big, with a table and a few cupboards. There were a lot of important looking documents around. There was also a way that leads to another part of the study. Without coming in, Kobaru closed the door, leaving me alone with Sesshoumaru. I waited for him to start speaking, but still he did not say anything.

**Sesshoumaru's pov**

So Kobaru did manage to find that girl… I wonder who she is… I after all do go to that dancing hall quite often, might be I have seen that girl before. She must be rather old, to learn the art healing when she was so old. Might be she's that senior dancer who has been in the dancing halls for a relatively long time. This is interesting, hope she is not too irritating or Jaken like in anyway.

Kobaru knocked on the door and let the girl into the room. I hurriedly finished my document on the table looking as calm as ever on the outside, as I wrote what I had to write at a very fast pace. Twinkle, twinkle, I heard metal bells sounds as the girl walked into the room.

I used my senses to try and sense what powers the being beside me had, still not looking up. Now, she did have a faint smell of poison and a cat demon's smell on her. That is rather interesting… However, her aura is quite weak or rather, you would say, it has been dormant for such a long time that it almost seemed impossible for her powers to be used.

I finished my document calmly, and curiously looked up to see how the being in front of me looked like. I was shocked! She was quite young, looking about Rin's age, which actually wasn't that far from the age that I looked of. Her face was covered up with a cloth, all her things were black, and she did not seem to have any weapons, except maybe the two intricately designed metal fans in her hand. She was rather well covered, in the sense that her hands and legs could not be seen as her hands wore gloves, legs boots.

She was Riyo, the famous dancer of the dancing halls! The twinkling sound had come from the bells that were on her silver string which she used to tie her hair. I kept my normal expressionless facade as I went through a very short stage of shock, not letting her know what I was thinking.

The girl stared at me uncomfortably, like she was in a very embarrassing position, then I realised why, I was staring at her too obviously. Well, as her lord, I have the right to stare at her, after all, this concerned Rin.

"You are Riyo?" I asked coolly looking at her. There was an obvious answer to that question, however, I learnt a long time ago that it was a good way to start a conversation.

"Yes, my lord," She said respectfully, bowing slightly, her eyes trying to avoid looking at my direction. At least she knew some respect when she saw someone of a higher status, unlike the usual commoners who do not know their place when with people of a higher status and class, this one at least knew a thing or two, enough not to get into trouble while in the castle.

"Why do you hide your face from me?" I asked abruptly, curious to know why she blindfolded her eyes, after all, from the way she was walking on unfamiliar grounds, one knew that she was not blind.

Her face went shocked for a moment like she did not know at all what I was talking about, then she smiled slightly and said, "Oh… that, well, my eyesight is exceptionally sharp, and taking this off would only make it harder for me to see. I only take it off when I am healing someone." After explaining, she shuddered slightly like she had remembered a horrible incident from her past to prove her point as to how horrendous it would be to take of her blindfolds at times other than those times in which she was healing someone.

"Hn… Women, are your healing skills good?" I asked, after all, the main reason why she was here is because she is going to help heal Rin, I would not let some low class witch doctor who did not know what she was doing come anywhere near my adopted daughter.

"Good enough, of course, if not you won't even be looking for me. However I am not a professional and I have explained to Lord Kobaru that if you think that my bloodline would help in the healing process, it can't, as I don't even know how to use my powers if I even had any." She replied. So she did not know how to use her powers, that might be a problem, but never mind, from what Kobaru told me, she is a very good healer even without the use of her powers.

"Hn…" I replied.

"So, My Lord, when do you want me to start healing Lady Rin?" She asked, suddenly looking very curious and interested, and also a bit resigned to this task, the look she gave was those that said since your at it, might as well do it to your very best, if not there was no point.

"I'll take you to see Rin now." I said, suddenly getting up from my chair. Might as well, it's either now or later anyway.

"Could you let me put my things down somewhere first? I mean, I shouldn't bring my stuff into Lady Rin's room, it will just get in the way." She asked explaining in the process before I could say anything.

"Hn… You will be staying in the room next to Rin. On the other side of your room is where I stay. Do not wander around too much." I said shortly to her, why not, might as well let her put her things down first, after all, her room was just next to Rin's room, might as well before, they might just start to get in the way when she tries to heal Rin.

"And while you are living in this castle, do not wear your normal dresses, wear more traditional clothes, if you don't want to wear kimonos, at least a yukata. I don't suppose you have that many, I will ask the servants to put some in your room." I said, suddenly noticing her that her dresses were way too exposed. She certainly could not wear her dresses in the castle, it would be such a bad influence on Rin, and it would disgrace me if any visitors came to visit.

"If that is what you want my lord, that will be no problem, thank you for providing me with more clothing, for I do not have any yukatas, and only have one kimono which is not suitable to be worn." Riyo said politely, the thank you more of for the sake of courtesy than actually really feeling grateful to me for providing her closet with more things collections.

We walked down another stretch of corridor. I then opened one of doors and leaned on it. She stared at me rather confused, and then a look of enlightenment dawned on her for she started to walk slowly into the room, seeming startled by the huge size of the room.

The room has been empty for quite some time, it was big, yet plain, with a queen sized bed, a table and two chairs with rugs on the floor, there was a big window that had a small balcony. The room was rather purple, with the bed purple, the rugs purple. There was nothing particularly special about it, except that it had connecting doors, one to my room, the other one to Rin's.

"Put your stuff down," I ordered. She gulped slightly. Well, might be she had not been enlightened yet…She put her stuff on the bed, then walked and stood beside me, waiting for further instructions.

"You are not to open the black connecting door unless it's of grave matters. The one that is black in colour leads to my room, the white one leads to Rin's. If you open it when it is not of grave matters, you die. The white one you may use it," I said. That was the reason why this room had been empty for so long. It had connecting doors to my room. If not for the fact that this girl was here for Rin, I would not have given her this room.

I then walked to the white door connected to Rin's room and reluctantly pushed the door open softly so as not to disturb Rin. The smell of sickness and medicine immediately rushed into my demon nose that was very sensitive. I saw Rin lying on the bed, with Kiso sitting beside her, the bed drapes let down, almost covering them from sight.

Rin looked so sickly even from where I was looking from, and she still had not woken up, my heart felt for my adopted daughter who was lying there looking so helpless.

If others came in to this room and saw Rin, people would think she was dead, so pale, a deadly white, just lying there, motionless, not even twitching, not moving one single bit, she could well be dead if not for the fact that I could still hear her faint breathing sounds from where I was.

Poor Rin, having to go through all this pain. I would definitely get her healed thoroughly, and find the person who tried to poison her. I would make sure that that person will go through hell, that person and the person who instigated him to do this deed will suffer my wrath.

They would suffer. They would suffer ten times what Rin is suffering now! After I finish with them, no one would dare to infuriate the Western Lord again. No one would be able to do that and get away with it.

No one would dare question me after I finish with those people. The might of the Western Lord could come alive if I wanted it to, no one would dare stand in my pathway, not in the past, not now not ever.

No one would ever hurt you again, Rin, I promise that to you Rin, as your father, as the Western Lord, as one of the greatest demon, I would fulfil this promise, no matter what it takes.

"_I promise"_

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End file.
